Rubber Mouth Robot Learns To Speak

This device is a robotic voice simulator created by scientists at the Department of Intelligent Mechanical Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kagawa University, Japan.

(Robotic Voice Simulator and the Interactive Training for Hearing-Impaired People)

A talking and singing robot which adaptively learns the vocalization skill by means of an auditory feedback learning algorithm is being developed. The robot consists of motor-controlled vocal organs such as vocal cords, a vocal tract and a nasal cavity to generate a natural voice imitating a human vocalization. In this study, the robot is applied to the training system of speech articulation for the hearing-impaired, because the robot is able to reproduce their vocalization and to teach them how it is to be improved to generate clear speech...

The talking robot mainly consists of an air pump, artificial vocal cords, a resonance tube, a nasal cavity, and a microphone connected to a sound analyzer, which, respectively, correspond to a lung, vocal cords, a vocal tract, a nasal cavity, and an audition of a human...

Vocal cords with two vibrating cords molded with silicone rubber with the softness of human mucous membrane were constructed in this study. Two-layered construction (a hard silicone is inside with the soft coating outside) gave the better resonance characteristics, and is employed in the robot [7]. The vibratory actions of the two cords are excited by the airflow led by the tube, and generate a source sound to be resonated in the vocal tract.

As I recall, the Terminators started out with rubber skin; I guess Skynet has to start somewhere.